“God bless you merry gentleman...” The girl’s breath made a soft fog in the chilly night air. The cold bit at Meredith's extremities, creeping slowly up from her toes. The harmony was drifting across the street, their black forms standing out in the street light. The door creaked open. An elderly lady standing there was beaming at them.
“For Christ our savior was born upon this day/Oh tidings of comfort and joy,” The paper in Meredithe's hand crumpled as she tried to grip it with her mittened fingers.
“Comfort and joy, oh tidings of comfort and joy!” They finished and laughed as the woman clapped.
“Wonderful! Thank you so much girls! Here, I have some treats for everyone.” A platter of warm chocolate chip cookies was passed from gloved hand to hand, everyone awkwardly picking up the soft gooey goodies.
Down the street Meredith could hear the faint sounds of two beautiful voices in perfect harmony. Why did he have to pick the same night, let alone the same street to go caroling? And where was Belle? She had said to call her. But she wasn’t picking up her cell. And Meredith really really needed to talk.
The woman waved as they thanked her for the treats, and slowly gathered back on the pavement.
“Away in a manger...” Gil’s younger brother had a better voice. She contented herself with the fact that Gil himself was slightly off pitch. But even with that, she still stewed. The worst part was not being able to tell any of the other girls here about it. They had been over for so long, months. She was supposed to not care anymore. She told everyone how much she hated him, which was true. But a part of her also loved him. No matter how much he was an ass, she couldn’t stop herself. She had confessed this only to Belle during one of their late night conversations, and couldn’t tell anyone else. If Ash found out...
“Hey, are you going to Dhar’s later?” Kat and Lizzy broke into her thoughts.
“What? Sorry.” Lizzy tweaked Meredithe's hair.
“Meredith, this is why I love you. You spend roughly 5% of the time in the real world. The rest you’re in your mind wearing pretty dresses and dazzling the men.” Meredith forced herself to smile
“What can I say? You know you love it!” The girls laughed. They were all in such high spirits, Meredith fit right in. She had once again proved her longtime theory that you will never know when the best acting is happening. Everyone was here. All of the seniors, out spending a last Christmas eve together caroling on the New Haven streets. Everyone except for Belle. She was with Fred. They had decided to spend a quiet evening alone. But he should have left by now, there was a game in the morning and he needed to rest. What was she doing? A sharp pain in her back made her look up.
“Oh no you don’t Brian! Don’t start something you can’t finish! Hold my music Angela.” She ran over to the banks of snow piled high along the sides of the street. If he was going to pack a snowball with ice, it was truly on.
Soon everyone was involved, snow and ice was flying through the air as people ran from car to car, using each other as “cover.” It soon became divided between the girls and boys, and Meredith had just cornered Brian and Dominique when she looked up to see Gil standing a little ways off talking to his brother.
WHAM!
The hard packed snow caught him completely off guard, hitting him squarely in the face. He staggered a little, looking around.
“Wha..?” Meredith gestured to the boys hiding clearly far away from where he was standing.
“Sorry. I must have missed.” She turned and walked away, to help Angela repel a barrage from Tom and Ian. That had felt so good. So so good. Smiling, she looked up to see Gil’s brother examine a growing red mark on his face. The two of them soon hurried back down the street, the spreading of Christmas cheer forgotten along with their sheet music.
Meredith wandered over to Angela and Kat. With a look over to the silhouettes down the street, she began a familiar song.
“Come and trim my Christmas tree...” the other girls joined in
“With some decorations bought at Tiffany’s,” The girls broke into choreo that they had done a few years past for a Christmas pageant. It was risqué, at best.
“I really do believe in you, lets see if you believe in me!”
Down the street, Gil saw the black forms dipping and swaying to the sound of the song. He touched his cheek, feeling the sting that Meredithe's ice packed snowball had left. But his face didn’t hurt as much as seeing her dancing there, knowing that she was probably going off to spend a cozy Christmas Eve with Ash.
“That her? I kinda recognize her.” Gil turned away, looking off down the street. His brother followed.
“Yeah. Let’s go, I’m getting cold.”
***
Meredith sat alone on the cold rock. The waves beat softly against the shore, soothing her irrational rage. Breathing slowly, she opened the notebook that Ash had given her as an early Christmas present. Stroking it’s blank pages, she began to write. She lost herself in the writing, not aware of anything but the waves and the chill slowly starting to creep up her spine.
“Meredith?” She started, she had not realized he was there. Quickly she shut the book, blushing slightly at the sentence she had just written. How long had he been standing there, watching her pour her problems onto the page?
“Hey, calm down. I won’t look. I promise, a journal isn’t much good if you let someone else see everything you’ve written.” She smiled, wishing that everyone else in the world agreed with him.
“Come on. You must be freezing. Let’s go get some hot Cocoa."
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